INTEX 28001E Above Ground Pool Automatic Pool Cleaner: Pressure Side Vacuum Cleaner – Includes 6.5m Hose – For INTEX Pools with 1 - 1/2in Threaded Inlet Fitting

When I look to purchase items on Amazon, I read through reviews and usually seemed disappointed in some of the reviews I read due to their lack of information and honesty with the product, so I want to give an accurate honest opinion of this purchase for future buyers like I was. SO this will be lengthy, but full of honest information...I purchased this vacuum in hopes of finding an affordable vacuum option for our pool. We have a 24-foot round, 52-inch-deep above ground metal frame pool, not an INTEX pool from Wal-Mart. The pump is a Hayward 1 HP pump with a sand filter system.I read some reviews and watched a few YouTube videos on this product prior to purchasing it. Straight out of the box, this vacuum is extremely easy to assemble. The mount kit that comes with it is made for INTEX return valves and will not work on our above ground pool jets, without a simple modification.I was able to remove the eye piece from the return jet on our pool, which directs the water to re-enter the pool, I want to re-iterate this, this vacuum is for the return ports of your pools, not the skimmer suction to the pump. Once this was removed, I attached a 1-1/2 in threaded pvc pipe with hose barbs on one end for attaching vacuum hose pipe too. The hose that comes with this vacuum is obviously made to attach to the head it comes with for INTEX return valves due to the large mounting nut and hose attachment. I simply cut the manufactured hose clamp tightening area from the hose itself which allowed the larger slinky part of the hose to easily slide up onto the pvc fitting for 1-1/4 inch hoses. I connected it with a basic hose clamp and turned the pump on.I will admit, for a cheaper vacuum I was skeptical, but this thing literally amazed me at how well it worked the first time using it. We previously had a shark attachment vacuum prior to this which attached to the suction/skimmer basket of our pool. When the pool was dirty, it would slow the pump down due to the debris removed from the pool being clogged up in the skimmer basket and the sand. This vacuum with the return setting option never slows the pump down and this vacuum worked overnight like a charm. There was not a spot of dirt to be seen in the pool bottom the next morning.I removed the vacuum from the pool and opened it up to clean it out. This was a simple task with four easy clips to open and remove the debris screen. Once this was opened, I used our garden hose and simply sprayed the debris screen off and the inside of the vacuum assembly itself. Everything washed out easily onto the ground.I gave this vacuum a 4 star rating on the suction only for the reason when I first watched it, it went over a few spots in the pool and didn't pick up everything visible on the floor. But I left it running overnight and noticed it had eventually removed everything from the pool bottom. I think the areas it was skipping over at first were probably dips in the pools floor bottom and just needed an extra sweep sometime during the night.Even if you do not own an INTEX pool, I highly recommend this pool vacuum to any above ground pool owner with a little common sense to make the attachment work. Even if this vacuum only lasts one season for some reason, I will buy this vacuum each year if they continue to make it. This vacuum is well worth the money spent on it.

Worked very well for a while, it did exactly what it designed to do, until the wheel broke off! One of the 4 drive wheels snapped off at the unit frame. No one had messed with it nor was it dropped or stepped on. I found the wheel at the bottom of the pool as the unit was trying to move up the side of the pool but it was just going to the top and could not crawl down. It lasted only a few weeks.Update: I ran a stainless steel bolt through the broken wheel mount bracket and we are back in business!!!Next to the crawling out of the pool, I think it was designed for freshwater not saltwater, the two blue weight compensators (balls), located inside the unit are two buoyant so I add some stainless steel weights to each side where the OEM weights are lowering it’s static ability to float, after some trial and error and 4 ounces on each side it can crawl up to and then back down from the edge of the water without getting stuck at the top!!!!Since I had to do the R n D and the math to compensate for the amount of lift, I am only giving it 4 stars. I WOULD still buy it, and now it does work very well. If you have a saltwater pool, add the weights to it you will be much happier.Another updateNow the reverse drive gear mount broke at the small bearing.Great idea great design poor production.Higher quality components in the drive system would make it one of the best units available. To the manufacturer, spend a few cents more and convert the plastic drive to stainless. Note the extra weight would not have effected the eccentric drive gear, it is isolated from the gear train.If I weren't having a good time fabricating the parts, I'd throw it away.If you're not into fabricating broken parts or don't have a machine shop, I would keep looking.

I always envied people who have those $1000 robotic pool vaccuums but I always thought they were way too expensive for what they did. I came across this one and I couldn't believe how cheap it was, I was convinced it must be a cheap P.O.S. So I rolled the dice and bought one.I was SHOCKED at how NOT "cheap" this thing actually was once I got it out the box and ready to use!I hooked it up to my aftermarket sand filter, dropped it into my 16' above ground Intex pool and it went to work right away zooming back and forth across the bottom of the pool!Within a couple hours, I came back and the entire bottom of the pool was clean and debris free!I extracted my new little buddy, popped the clasps, opened his belly, and revealed it was FULL of dirt, leaves, sand, and debris that I didn't even know was IN there!Now I hook it up and run it for a couple hours, once a week, and my pool is cleaner than it's ever been! And I'm MORE shocked than ever at how LITTLE I paid to have this luxury. I can't imagine why people pay $600+ for pool cleaning robots. Granted this one doesn't have any active brushed that spin or anything like that, it's a very simple jet powered vacuum cleaner that uses the outlet pressure from your existing pool filter to propel it around the pool floor and it uses Bernoulli's principle to create a surprizingly strong vacuum to suck debris up from under it. the debris get's trapped inside the unit by the removable filter screen which allows the water which get's sucked up into the opening on the underside to pass through it, and the trapped dirt stays inside until you empty it.The clean, filtered water then get's ejected out the one of the nozzles on either side of the unit like jet ski, causing the entire unit be thrusted forward.After about 10-15 seconds (enough time for it to travel from one end of the pool floor to the other) the internal mechanism automatically switches the output direction of the water from the back, to the nozzle in the front, and the unit starts to move in the opposite direction.It repeats this back and forth movement indefinitely, and because of the slight resistance of the hose pulling on the unit as it travels, it causes it to make a slight "arc" as it moves, this ensures that it covers the entire bottom of the pool in a period of time and it doesn't just move back and fourth over the same area. Think of it as "organized chaos", sort of how a Roomba can vacuum your entire carpet while seemingly moving in a random pattern.Bottom line is, I LOVE this thing, and I can't BELIEVE I paid less than $80 (with shipping). It works GREAT. does exactly what it claims, and it feel like it's built so well that it should last at LEAST 5 years (or more) without a problem.Definitely a GREAT purchase.